7 months later - Din's POV
The strong stench of raw meat wafted throughout the room. I could unfortunately smell it from under my helmet, I felt like I was trapped with the stench, but it was unfortunately not the worst thing I've smelt in my time as a bounty hunter.
I walked up to a door that was covered by a plastic curtain and parted it open so I could walk through. I stepped into a room that had several tables covered in slabs of meat. Half carcasses hung from the ceiling on meat hooks. I took a look around the room to try and figure out where my bounty was.
There were several men in the room with me, carving up slabs of meat with large knives. Those cleavers could be a problem if a fight broke out. But it was nothing that I couldn't handle.
I spotted the next door at the end of the room. My lips parted and I took in a breath before I shut my mouth shut again. Her name was resting on my tongue, and I was about to say it out loud. Without even thinking about it, I was about to tell her that the door was at the other side of the room. Even though she wasn't here.
I clenched my jaw as a sharp pang of pain ran across my heart. I felt it travel through my nervous system, taking over every inch of my body. I tilted my head slightly and started to walk forward again. Quickly passing by the workers and the hanging meat.
I had done that too many times, coming far too close to calling out her name when she wasn't there. I missed her badly, as much as I missed the child. My family was far away from me and I know that it's for the best, but it doesn't stop me from yearning for them.
I slowed down as I stood in front of the second door. I parted the plastic curtain and stepped into the room. I sighed quietly as I looked around the room. There were four men inside along with a computer and a large desk. My gaze immediately fell on the man behind the desk, who happened to be my bounty.
"You look lost." Kaba Baiz said from behind his desk
"I'm here for Kaba Baiz." I said
"What makes you think he's here?" Kaba Baiz said. I reached up to my belt and pulled out a tracking beacon. It was rapidly flashing red and beeping repeatedly. Once I had shown it to the men I placed it back in my belt.
"What do you want of him?" Kaba Baiz asked, clearly this man doesn't know that I have a bounty puck too.
"He owes someone important money." I answered
"Who?" Kaba Baiz asked
"That's not my business. I'm here to bring him in." I stated
Kaba Baiz looked around like he was thinking before he turned back to me. "Well, if I see him, I'll let him know."
I reached into my belt and pulled out a round bounty puck, placing it on the desk in front of him. "I see him right now."
I turned on the bounty puck and a holo image of the man immediately popped up in front of him. He straightened up and chuckled uncomfortably.
"That's not me. That doesn't even look like me." Kaba Baiz tried to persuade me.
"I'm gonna give the rest of you the opportunity to walk out that door. I have no quarrel with you." I told the other men in the room.
Kaba Baiz shook his head at me. "They're not going anywhere. Looks to me like you're surrounded. But you look like the practical type. Let's discuss our options."
There wasn't any way that I'd bargain with this guy. "I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold."
I reached for my blaster, my fingers just managed to wrap around the blaster when one of the men rushed up to me and bit down hard on my thumb. I grunted in pain and dropped my blaster. I quickly spun around and head butted the man, forcing him to let go of my hand.
"Attack!" One of the men yelled from behind me. I spun around to face him and he swung at me with a metal pipe. I brought my leg up and kneed his arm, causing him to stumble. I grabbed his arm and swung him away from me.
A man from behind me rapidly shot his blaster at me. The bolts rapidly ricocheted against my beskar armor, I couldn't help but grunt in pain as the bolts made contact. It was sure to leave several bruises. I turned around so the blaster bolts were hitting against my jetpack.
I grabbed onto the hilt of the darksaber and pulled it off of my belt. I pressed down on the button to ignite the blade and it slid out of the hilt. I spun around and swung the blade at the man who had been shooting me. The hot laser blade made contact with the blaster and cut it in half. The man fell to the ground from the impact. I stumbled forward slightly as the blade weighed me down.
I spun around and the man behind me hit my head with a metal pole. I flinched slightly as the metal ricocheted off of my beskar helmet and kicked my leg into his chest, causing him to fall backwards and hit his head off of a table.
I spun around on my heels as another man shot at my helmet with his blaster. I shoved his arm out of the way and elbowed him harshly in the face. I spotted one of the men getting back up again and reaching for a blaster. I tried to turn around but it proved to be a difficult feet as I dragged the dark saber across the ground. It seemed to be getting heavier and heavier.
I swung the saber upwards towards the man, the blade slashed across the man's chest and cut a piece of meat In half. I hardly managed to pause for a second before another man was swinging at my head again. I quickly ducked under his arm and spun around, impaling him through his stomach with the saber.
I yanked it back out and due to the weight of the saber, it swung back at me and hit my thigh. I yelled out in pain as a searing hot fire burned into my skin, rushing through my nervous system. I collapsed to the floor and held onto my leg as I continued to groan.
I had to quickly stand back up again and push through the pain as another man tried to attack me. He's just lucky that Celeste isn't here, she would have killed him for attacking me while I'm injured. I stopped him from hitting me by grabbing his arm and twisting it. I pushed him backwards and kept him under my arm as another man rushed at me. I was expecting him to attack me, but instead he bit down on my gloved hand that was holding onto the darksaber.
I yelled out in pain and tried to break free of the man's hold. I moved my arm behind him and swung the darksaber at his back, slashing hard and causing him to fall to the ground. I spun around and slashed the other man. I fell alongside him and landed heavily on my knees.
Blaster bolts started to ricochet off of my jetpack. I clenched my jaw in frustration and In pain. As quickly as I could, I stood up from the ground and turned to face Kaba Baiz. I pushed my vibroblade into his chest and shoved him backwards firmly. I knocked him onto the table so he was laying across it and then brought the darksaber up above my head with both of my hands. I swung down as hard as I could and cut the man in half, along with the metal table.
My breath came out heavily as I stood with the heavy blade in my hands. The adrenaline I had felt during the fight was still buzzing through my body, causing the pain in my thigh to be slightly more dull than it will be in a few minutes' time.
I heard a noise from behind me and quickly turned my head. A man was shuffling towards the door with a look of fear in his eyes. He held his hands up to try and keep me from attacking him. I stared at him as he ran out the door in a panic. I don't want to fight someone who doesn't want to fight me when I'm already injured. I could feel the pain in my thigh intensifying with every second. I couldn't help but imagine what it would be like if she was here. How she would fuss over me, force me to sit down and try to take care of my wound. It made my heart ache to think about it. To think about how much I missed her.
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I was right when I said that the pain in my leg would get worse over time. I bit down on the inside of my cheek as I slowly limped along. I heard a beep in my visor to let me know that I was getting close to my destination. I had heard that a mandalorian covert was residing on this planet, and right now I needed help more than ever.
I turned on my visor and it revealed the symbol of the mythosaur painted on the wall in front of me. Underneath the symbol was an arrow pointing in the direction of the covert. I walked towards the corner that it was pointing to and saw another symbol on the wall. It was pointing towards a door that looked like it led underground.
The small gray door had a mythosaur painted just above it, this was it. I pressed the button on the side panel and the door beeped as it opened up. I stepped through the door onto a metal walkway. The walkway had a ladder attached to the side that led all the way down. I could see space below the infrastructure, so I definitely didn't want to fall.
I heard a soft beep in my helmet as I slowly approached the ladder. The sound of my comlink. My heart rate picked up as I pressed on the side of my helmet to answer the call, praying that it was her.
"Hey." Her voice came through the speaker softly. I couldn't help the way my lips twitched up into a soft smile at the sound of her voice.
"Hey, Cyar'ika. Is everything okay?" I asked her as I put my good leg on the first step of the ladder.
"Yeah, I just wanted to talk to you." She admitted.
I went to reply to her, but my leg gave out from under me and I slipped down the ladder a bit. I let out a loud groan as I caught myself.
"What happened? Is everything okay?" She asked me with worry thick in her voice. I clenched my jaw as I pulled myself back up again.
"Everything's fine, Cyare. It's just...I might have cut myself with the darksaber." I admitted as I started to climb down again, keeping a tight grip on the ladder."
"I'm sorry, what? How did that happen! Are you okay?" She asked worriedly
"Fight gone wrong, I'm still not used to this thing. I swear it gets heavier every time I use it. I accidentally slashed my thigh, cut a big hole in my trousers too." I said with a small chuckle, trying and failing to make her feel better.
I heard her sigh through the comlink. "You have to be more careful. I think Master Skywalker has another book on mandalorian history. I could take a look for you to see if it talks about the darksaber and why it's heavy."
"You don't have to do that, I'm sure you're busy." I said with a gentle sigh
"I am. But I'm never too busy to help you, I'll take a look." She said gently. I could feel heat rise to my cheeks at her words. My heart fluttered in my chest and served as a good distraction for the agony I was in.
"Thank you, Cyar'ika." My gaze fell on the back of the armorer. "I'm gonna have to go, cyare. I'll talk to you soon."
"Okay, please be careful." She pleaded with me.
"I will be." I pressed the button on the side of my helmet to end the call. My legs felt like they were going to give out from under me. The pain was all I could feel as I attempted to walk down the stairs. Suddenly, my legs gave out and I fell down the last step, collapsing into the ground. Even though I was in severe pain, all that I could think of was her. And how she was so willing to help me.